Sometimes it takes age for a film to get the
credit it deserves. Steamboat Bill, Jr., the last film from the independent
Buster Keaton Studios, considered today to be a classic of the silent slapstick
comedy, was not a financial success when first released.

The film was a culmination of a creative
partnership between comedian Keaton and his brother-in-law and producer Joseph
M. Schenck, which included such features as Sherlock, Jr. (1924), Seven Chances
(1925), The General (1927) and College (1927), not to mention nineteen shorts
including One Week (1920), The High Sign (1921), The Boat (1921) and The
Balloonatic (1923). While ultimately Schenck would shut down the Buster Keaton
Studio and convince the star to sign with his brother Nicholas Schenck’s MGM
studios, the work they did together has stood the test of time. (Keaton had
previously worked with Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle on a series of shorts from 1917
to 1920 that were also produced by Joseph Schenck, but these are really Arbuckle
starring vehicles in which Keaton is a featured player.)

The relationship with Schenck allowed Keaton to
make movies on his own schedule with his own group of writers/gagmen. If a
scene wasn’t working out the way he wanted, the crew would play baseball until
a better idea gelled. In this artist-friendly environment, Keaton flourished,
producing some of the funniest movies ever made, as well as classics like The
General, Sherlock, Jr. and Steamboat Bill, Jr. When Schenck became more involved
with United Artists, he removed his support and Keaton went to work for MGM, where his career would tailspin downward after one more classic, The Cameraman
(1928).

The idea of Steamboat Bill, Jr. was brought to
Keaton by director Charles F. Reisner, based on a popular song made famous by
singer Arthur Collins from 1911, Steamboat Bill. The song would also appear in
another 1928 film of note, the Disney short “Steamboat Willie”, which was a
parody of Steamboat Bill, Jr. and helped to launch the career of animated
character Mickey Mouse.

Mickey Mouse making his debut in Steamboat Willie (1928), a parody of Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Despite the writing credit of story and
screenplay by Carl Harbaugh, Keaton and his gagmen did the bulk of the "writing" that made it on screen. Keaton
would say that Harbaugh was useless. And while Reisner is credited as director,
Keaton also had a hand in that as well.

The film opens with the text, Muddy Waters,
which is not a reference to the legendary blues singer, but to the Mississippi
River. Up to the pier in the small town of River Junction steams a new
paddle-wheel, the King, named after
John James “J.J.” King (Tom McGuire), who also owns the River Junction Bank and
the Hotel King.

The newest steamboat in River Junction is King, the namesake of J.J. King.

King’s plan is to run William “Steamboat Bill”
Canfield (Ernest Torrence) and his ship, steamboat Stonewall Jackson, out of business. Even Bill’s first (and last) mate, Tom Carter (Tom Lewis) practically concedes defeat. But Bill is not
going to give up without a fight.

Returning to port, Bill is handed a vaguely
worded telegram from his son in Boston, whom he hasn’t seen since he was a
baby. Bill, Jr. has recently graduated from college and has been sent by his
mother to visit his father. Bill and Tom imagine that Bill, Jr. must be like
Bill, a strapping, muscular sort, perhaps, as Bill imagines, even bigger’n than
he is.

Bill, Jr. (Buster Keaton) is not all what his father Bill, Sr.(Ernest Torrence)
was expecting. First mate Tom Carter (Tom Lewis) looks on from the left.

He is no doubt disappointed when he realizes
that the meek-looking, fancy-dressed. beret-wearing man carrying a ukulele
under his arm is his son, Bill, Jr. (Buster Keaton). Bill tries to remake his son in his
own image, first taking him to the Hotel King barber to get his pencil-thin
moustache cut off. There Bill, Jr. is reunited with alumni, Kitty King (Marion
Bryon), who has also just returned home. She can’t wait to introduce Bill, Jr.
to her “loveable” father, unaware of the feud between their fathers (think
Romeo and Juliet).

Kitty King (Marion Byron) Bill Jr.'s alumni also home from college. This was Marion's first film.

While she runs off looking for her dad, Bill, Jr.’s drags him
to the hat shop to find a suitable replacement for the beret. In a bit of
slapstick, we see the father and milliner try on a succession of hats,
including, though only Bill, Jr. seems to notice, Buster Keaton’s iconic porkpie
hat. After finally agreeing on a hit brimmed white hat, no sooner do they step
outside than a gust of wind blows it off of Bill, Jr.’s head and back comes on
the beret.

While trying on hats, Bill, Jr. is fitted with a porkpie hat synonymous with Keaton.

This time, Bill takes his son to get new
clothes, more suitable replacements for the striped blazer, wide-legged pants
and checkered bow tie he’s wearing. Bill leaves his son alone and Kitty runs to
help. With her help, as the movie attests, Bill, Jr. reunites with his father
dressed more like a yachtsman than a crew member aboard a steamboat. When he
sees him swagger onto the docks, Tom hands Bill, Sr. a wrench saying “No jury
would convict you.”

Bill, Jr. is nothing but clumsy. He knocks into a
deckhand and sends a life preserver into the water (where it sinks). On board
the ship, he hits his head as he ascends the stairs, runs into wires and nearly
falls off the deck of the Stonewall
Jackson. When he sees Kitty on the deck of the King, he poses for her benefit and even when he is upended when a
deckhand pulls the rope out from under his feet, Bill, Jr. tries his best to
impress her.

Bill, Jr. is not at ease on board his father's boat the Stonewall Jackson.

With the two boats docked so close together, Kitty
jumps on board the Stonewall Jackson
to be near Bill, Jr. When King tries to drag his daughter back to his boat, Bill, Jr. follows. Then Bill demands his son return to his boat. King ups the ante by
having one of his uniformed officers throw Bill, Jr. off the King, but Kitty follows her man back to the Stonewall Jackson. Bill, Jr. talks
her into returning to her father's boat. But
that’s not good enough for King, who warns Bill that if his son returns to the King, he will personally wring his neck.

Bill prods his son to step back on board the King and Bill, Jr. is thrown back and
forth between the two boats. Finally thrown back on the deck of the Stonewall Jackson, Bill, Jr. brings the King’s officer with him. The officer gets up and tries
to fight Bill, Jr., who declines. But Bill doesn’t quit; he takes his son’s hand, balls it into a fist and knocks the officer back into the water.

Buster becomes a pawn between his father and his rival J.J. King (Tom McGuire).

Bill threatens King, by saying if any of his men
board his ship, Bill, Jr. will take care of them. But before Bill, Jr. can feel
too smug, his dad pulls him away and over another of the ship’s cables. King
likewise pulls Kitty off in the opposite direction.

Bill tries to get a crewman to show Bill, Jr. how
to run a steamship, but the curious boy pulls a chain which sends the boat
forward, ramming the King repeatedly,
eventually sending its namesake into the water. Bill is mad at his son until he
sees his rival in the water. Trying to celebrate, he gives his son a plug of
chewing tobacco. When he slaps his son on the back, Bill, Jr. swallows and
faints to the floor.

That night, Bill, Jr. sneaks off the Stonewall Jackson to rendezvous with Kitty,
who has left him a note saying that she’ll wait for him at the salon. But his
father catches him and makes Bill, Jr. give up the uniform. Meanwhile, King
admonishes his daughter for her interest in the Canfield boy. He tells her that he will pick the right man
for her, while at the same time Bill tells his son that he’ll pick the right
girl for him.

But undeterred, Bill, Jr. sneaks out. His
clumsiness gets the best of him when his attempt to bridge the gap between the
two decks with a plank fails and he ends up in the water. Bill watches as his
drenched son climbs on board the King
in defiance. Eventually, King, an officer and Bill, Jr. all end up back in the
water again.

The next morning, Bill wakes his son with cold
water and presents him with cash and a train ticket back to Boston.

Bill gives his son a ticket back to Boston.

Meanwhile, the Stonewall Jackson is condemned. Thinking King is behind the notice,
Bill confronts him in public. Their confrontation escalates into a brawl and
Bill is arrested for assaulting King.

Bill, Jr. has by now started for the train
station. He pauses when he sees Kitty walking towards him, but she continues
past him into a building. Not sure if he just imagined her or not, he continues
towards the station. But Kitty has a change of heart and follows after him.

Kitty is only a few feet behind him when Bill, Jr. sees his father being taken to jail. Determined to get his father out of
prison, he tears up his ticket and turns to return to the ship. Kitty turns at
the same time and appears to be walking away from him, which gives him pause.

A box on the front page of the local paper
declares that the weather will be wet and cloudy on the day Bill, Jr. goes to
visit his father in jail. After sinking
waist deep into a puddle, Bill, Jr.’s over-sized umbrella gets turned inside out.
Once in the jail, Bill, Jr. unwraps the white bundle he’s been carrying to
reveal a loaf of bread he’s brought for his father, who turns it down. Bill
tells the jailer to throw him out, but Bill, Jr. decides to wait it out until his father gets hungry enough for the bread.

Bill shows the Sheriff the loaf of bread he's brought his father in jail.

While he waits for his father to come around,
Bill, Jr. comes across the posted lyrics to ‘The Prisoner Song’, which he sings.
Then he tries to pantomime to his father how a prisoner could escape, by sawing through the bars and knocking out the guards, but Bill does not
understand the message.

Bill, Jr. tries a second strategy. He stages a
rock being thrown through the glass of the jail and while a dim-witted sheriff
sorts it out, Bill, Jr. opens the loaf of bread to show his father that it is
filled with escape tools. But when he is escorted to his father’s cell, all the
tools fall out on to the floor. He is also taken into custody, but manages to
escape, setting off a chase which ends when the sheriff drops his keys, which
Bill, Jr. hands back to him.

Unappreciative the sheriff throws him up against
the bars. But Bill encourages his son to fight back and Bill, Jr. knocks out the
sheriff with a blow to his stomach. Bill
escapes outside to the bushes, but his son’s long coat gets caught in the jail
door, but the keys, where his father dropped them, are a little out of reach.
By the time he finally frees himself, deputies arrive and hold him. The revived
sheriff whacks Bill, Jr. over the head with his gun.

Then Bill, upon seeing the blow and his son
being taken to the “receiving” hospital, punches the sheriff and then walks
back into his cell.

While Bill, Jr. is at the hospital, hurricane
force winds start to destroy the town, ripping the sides off buildings if not
completely off their foundations. There
is chaos in the streets as men and women seek shelter from the destructive
winds.

And it is at this time that the daredevil
athleticism of Buster Keaton really takes over. It would be near impossible to
describe all of his antics as he moves from one near fatal stunt to another.
But it is in this sequence that we do get perhaps the best known bit from
Buster Keaton’s film, when the three-story front of a house falls and the great
stone face escapes by standing precisely where a window is. There’s been a lot
written about Keaton’s frame of mind at the time the film was made. His
marriage to Natalie Talmadge was falling apart and knew his days as an
independent filmmaker were coming to an end. Some say he was suicidal when he
took such risks, but these were well calculated stunts, if not grander versions
of ones he’d already performed. (The house façade narrowly missing him was also
done on a smaller scale in the short, One Week.)

Keaton couldn't move, literally. His shoes were nailed down.

The stunts, all done by Keaton, have to be seen
to be believed and fully appreciated. This sequence truly rivals anything from a Harold Lloyd film, another silent comedian known for his
dangerous comedy bits (see Safety Last (1923)). In addition to the falling house,
Keaton is blown around by the high winds, electrocuted by downed power lines
and even rides an uprooted tree. Towards the end of the sequence, Bill, Jr. climbs
onto the paddle wheel of the Stonewall
Jackson, which has broken free of its mooring and is floating down river. (You can see a portion of the sequence without fear of commercials here: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/453322/Steamboat-Bill-Jr-Movie-Clip-Storm-Clouds.html)

Bill, Jr. quickly becomes a hero. When the house Kitty
is trapped in floats by, he uses the ship’s anchor as a grappling hook to
stabilize the house. He attempts to use a rope to save Kitty, but on returning
to the ship the weight is too much and the rope breaks. Thrown into the water,
Bill, Jr. swims Kitty back to the ship and gets her up on deck.

Next, he rescues his father from the jailhouse,
which is now also floating by in the river, with Bill waist deep in water.
Using an elaborate web of ropes and levers, Bill, Jr. crashes the Stonewall Jackson into the jailhouse
and frees his father, pulling him from the river.

After that, Bill, Jr. steers the ship to rescue
J.J. King from his floundering namesake. Diving nearly two stories into the
river, Bill, Jr. rescues Kitty’s father and swims him back to safety. Kitty and
Bill pull her father up onto the deck and the two fathers seem to reconcile
during the tragedy.

And just when it seems everyone is safe, Bill, Jr. grabs a life preserver and jumps back into the river. Kitty is dismayed
until she sees him swimming back with a minister (James T. Mack) in tow.

Bill rescues a minister (James T. Mack) so he can marry Kitty.

The cyclone/hurricane ending was not the
original one they had in mind, but a devastating flood on the Mississippi River
in 1927 caused a rewrite. The Mississippi flood, the worst in U.S. history,
impacted 14 states, caused over $400 million in damages and killed 246 people in
seven states. Feeling the events were too recent, the flood was changed to
winds. The change also drove up the $200,000 budget, as on short notice
$135,000 worth of breakaway sets were constructed and six powerful wind
machines were deployed to knock them down.

Shot in Sacramento with a budget of over $400,000, the film, which opened to mixed reviews, actually lost money in its initial
release. Despite its less than grand debut, the movie is now considered a
classic and an essential Keaton film. The film combines the best elements of
Keaton’s work, from the humor of human interaction to his death-defying
slapstick stunts.
Steamboat Bill, Jr. was the first film for Marion Byron, who played Kitty King. She would appear in 44 films, but none would be as memorable as this one. After this movie, she would sign with Hal Roach and appear in several comedy shorts with the likes of Charley Chase and Edgar Kennedy. After the talkies became all the rage, she moved into musicals, now mostly forgotten. Her last film was Five of a Kind (1938).
Ernest Torrence was a Scottish born actor who came to America in 1911 and found work on the Broadway stage. His role in the musical The Night Boat (1920) got the attention of Hollywood. His first film role was Luke Hatburn in the enormously popular Tol'able David (1921), which was voted a Photoplay Magazine Medal of Honor, a big pre-Academy honor. He would also appear in the Lon Chaney Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). Like Byron, Torrence moved into talkies, making his last film I Cover the Waterfront (1933). Soon after that film was completed, he died suddenly from an acute attack of gail stones.

Buster Keaton, along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, is considered one of the great silent film comedians. Up until the time
Keaton joined MGM, all three had retained a certain independence from the major
studios. Keaton’s films, like Chaplin’s, were made when inspiration struck. If one gag
didn’t work, then re-do it until the desired effect was obtained. (The Unknown
Chaplin TV series, from 1983, details Chaplin’s reworking of bits and shelving
ideas that he couldn't get to work on film.) None of them could have been as
creative in a studio environment which at the time prized speed over quality.

It is sad that for Keaton, Steamboat Bill, Jr. was
a last hurrah of sorts. His career and life would never be the same after this.
But the film stands as a testament to his talent and must be/should be seen to
be appreciated.